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Jacksonville businesswomen talk about 'The Sweet Taste of Success'

Women who've made it in business urge their colleagues to be passionate and resilient.

Bob.Self@jacksonville.com Margaret Olubodun samples a cupcake from SweetByHolly during a forum Thursday for female entrepreneurs called The Sweet Taste of Success.

Three successful Jacksonville businesswomen proved Thursday that there’s nothing sweeter than the taste of success.

In celebration of Women’s History month, the Beaver Street Enterprise Center hosted The Sweet Taste of Success event, which featured a panel of local women who are business owners.

Hollis Wilder, a two-time winner of the Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars,” and founder of SweetByHolly, Dana Stallings, owner of a local Kilwins franchise, and Lauren Little, an owner of two Jacksonville Edible Arrangements franchises, shared their secrets to success to an audience of more than 50 fellow entrepreneurs, small business owners and community members.

“If you’re a woman working right now in the United States, it’s important to be really, really passionate and love what you’re doing and make it new and fresh and interesting every day,” Wilder said.

“What we are trying to deliver to the community is information that is going to help you continue to be successful when you start a small business,” she said.

The Women’s Business Center provides access to education and resources to female entrepreneurs.

Wilder was a former savory chef to the stars in Los Angeles before relocating to Florida. She opened Sweet! By Good Golly Miss Holly in Orlando in 2008.

The St. Johns Town Center SweetByHolly location opened its doors in September and baked more than 90,000 cupcakes in February. The shop offers 30 flavors of cupcakes baked fresh daily, along with self-serve frozen yogurt.

“Owning your own business is so much about being honest with yourself,” she said. “If you are going to be a leader and own your own business, and on top of that have dignity and honor, it’s a lot of work.”

Stallings opened her Kilwins chocolate shop franchise in 2005. She encouraged businesswomen to build themselves up and know they are capable.

“You will fail at some point in your business,” she said. “You take those failures and you go forward and learn from them.”

Little opened her first Edible Arrangements franchise in The Shoppes of Avondale in 2006. She had worked in corporate America for years before deciding she wanted to do something different. She then acquired a second location in Bartram Park in 2009. Edible Arrangements offers baskets of fresh fruit arranged to resemble bouquets of flowers.

“It is always important to continue learning, and there are so many resources available to you,” she said. “Talk to other business owners. Learn from your experiences, and read a lot.”

Kateena LaPrade attended the event to expand her entrepreneurial skills after recently starting her own small business, Successfully Yours, LLC, a career coaching center in Mandarin.

“I learned that you are going to fail, but you can learn from those failures, and that’s OK,” she said. “I can see my business growing.”

After the panel was finished speaking, the audience could sample various treats from SweetByHolly, Kilwins and Edible Arrangements, as well as receive a massage by Tranquility N Motion and sample other products while networking.

“Women were not always empowered,” said Angelia Redding, coordinator of the event from Beaver Street Enterprise Center. “I think that it’s important to have events like this because women have more potential than they think.”

amber.batteiger@jacksonville.com

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